Today, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) joined Fox Business Network’s Mornings with Maria Bartiromo to discuss President Biden’s weaponization of the Justice Department to target political opponents, toleration of antisemitism on college campuses, and choice to have an active account on CCP-controlled TikTok. Leader Scalise highlighted Speaker Johnson’s trip to Columbia University to call out antisemitism and hold liberal universities accountable. Leader Scalise also discussed the TikTok divestiture bill being signed into law and stressed the need for TikTok to separate itself from the CCP-led ByteDance.
     

On political weaponization of the judicial system:

"Well, good morning. It's great to be with you, Maria. And what you're seeing is the Supreme Court have to confront what Joe Biden caused by weaponizing the federal government against his political opponents, here in this case, Donald Trump. Everybody in America sees this case for what it is: It's [Joe Biden] going after his political opponents using every lever of the justice system he can. The Supreme Court does not want that to become the norm. I mean, this is what you see in banana republics. They cited banana republics for a reason. You know, this is what happens. The political opponent runs and then ultimately gets thrown in jail. Look at Russia: They kill their political opponents, for goodness sake. You know, do you really want a situation where, you know, the government then goes after and targets? 

"If Donald Trump's name was anything else, if he never ran for President, everybody in America knows he would not be on trial in New York. There is no crime. The bank got their money. Everything in this case is all trumped up by people who literally said, I'm running for office to go after Donald Trump, not to put criminals in jail. They let the criminals out of jail, Maria, in New York, as you know too well. They literally let the criminals run free while they say, we're going to go find something – even if we don't find something – on Donald Trump. We're going to tie him up in the court so he can't run for President. That is the definition of political interference that happens in banana republics. It should not be allowed in the United States.”

On antisemitism on college campuses: 

"Well, first of all, I'm glad Speaker Johnson actually went there on Wednesday and highlighted this problem. I think most people in America are disgusted by what they're seeing on these campuses and it started by the way they brewed their own hatred. A lot of these professors are teaching the hatred in the classroom. They don't make their Jewish students feel safe. I mean, we saw it. We had hearings on Capitol Hill where we brought Jewish students in who said they flat out are being targeted, harassed in the school, in the classroom, and the schools aren't protecting them. A lot of these Ivy League schools that charge sixty, eighty, a hundred thousand dollars a year. You wonder why some of these students get tagged with all the student loan debt because they're not even allowed to get an education, they get saddled with the student loans, and then they can't get a good job. 

"Frankly, the school should be on the hook for some of that. But it shows you what the school's priorities are: They will not protect their Jewish students. The antisemitism is allowed; it's growing. People like [Rep.] Ilhan Omar encourage that. We're seeing – and that's where the Democrat party has shifted to the far socialist left where antisemitism is the norm and bullying and threatening and now harassment against Jewish students for their faith is allowed. That's not America; it's surely not something we should tolerate.”

On American data at risk through the CCP’s control of TikTok:

"Well, you know, we knew at the very beginning that this would be going into the courts. So this process will go into the courts first before it ultimately is upheld and then divestiture will happen, Maria. But we had to draw up a bill that we knew would withstand legal muster, and we had to build the right coalition in Congress; Republicans and Democrats who wanted to confront this problem. As you pointed out, it's a major national security threat, the data of most Americans. Look, I talked to young kids about this bill because TikTok is very popular, especially amongst young kids. And people thought that was going to ultimately defeat our bill because young kids would love the application, and they would defend it. And I would say, how many of you know how much of your data is at risk? And actually that the Chinese Communist Party has the ability to get access to it and no hands go up. Nobody knows that.

"And then you talk about the threats to their data. And I've seen classified briefings, I've seen public briefings of what kind of data of yours is at risk if you're on TikTok – and again, 170 million Americans – and people are alarmed by it. And then you say, look, we're not getting rid of the application. All we're doing is saying that they would have to divest and sell to an American company so that no longer would the Chinese Communist Party have access to your data. And when you explain that people love the bill, people who use TikTok love the bill. And so I think what you're going to see is once the legal process is exhausted and this new law is upheld, then you're going to see TikTok go sell. Bytedance will sell to an American company. They're going to make a lot of money, by the way, Maria, too. And then all the disinformation and lies that they've been spreading about this bill will be over. And then Americans who are using it will still be able to use it, but their data won't be at risk like it is today.”

On Joe Biden on TikTok:

"Well, you know, that's the duplicity of this President. You know, they say one thing and they do another all the time. They don't want the laws to apply to them. The law will apply to them, like everybody else. But at the end of the day, if you had the right kind of leadership, our country wouldn't have the problems it has today on so many fronts – economic problems, world being on fire, all the things that you're seeing in America, the open border, it's because of a lack of leadership at the top from Joe Biden. That's why the voters, I think, are going to have a very loud say on November 5th.”

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